CIVILIZATION OF THE ORIENT
_The First Nations with Historical Records in Asia and Africa_.--The
seats of the most ancient civilizations are found in the fertile
valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile. These centres of civilization
were founded on the fertility of the river valleys and the fact of
their easy cultivation. Just when the people began to develop these
civilizations and whence they came are not determined. It is out of
the kaleidoscopic picture of wandering humanity seeking food and
shelter, the stronger tribes pushing and crowding the weaker, that
these permanent seats of culture became established. Ceasing to wander
after food, they settled down to make the soil yield its products for
the sustenance of life. Doubtless they found other tribes and races
had been there before them, though not for permanent habitation. But
the culture of any one group of people fades away toward its origins,
mingling its customs and life with those who preceded them. Sometimes,
indeed, when a tribe settled down to permanent achievement, its whole
civilization is swept away by more savage conquerors. Sometimes,
however, the blood of the invaders mingled with the conquered, and the
elements of art, religion, and language of both groups have built up a
new type of civilization.
The geography of the section comprising the nations where the earliest
achievements have left permanent records, indicates a land extending
from a territory east of the Tigris and Euphrates westward to the
eastern shore of the Mediterranean and southward into Egypt.
Doubtless, this region was one much traversed by tribes of various
languages and cultures. Emerging from the Stone Age, we find the
civilization ranging from northern Africa and skirting Arabia through
Palestine {153} and Assyria down into the valley of the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Doubtless, the civilization that existed in this region was
more or less closely related in general type, but had derived its
character from many primitive sources. As history dawns on the
achievements of these early nations, it is interesting to note that
there was a varied rainfall within this territory. Some parts were
well watered, others having long seasonal periods of drought followed
by periodical rains. It would appear, too, the uncertainty of rainfall
seemed to increase rather than diminish, for in the valley of the
Euphrates, as well as in the valley of the Nile, the inhabitants were
forced to resort to artificial irrigation for the cultivation of their
crops.
It is not known at what time the Chaldeans began to build their
artificial systems of irrigation, but it must have been brought about
by the gain of the population on the food supply, or perhaps an
increased uncertainty of rainfall. At any rate, the irrigation works
became a systematic part of their industry, and were of great size and
variety. It took a great deal of engineering skill to construct
immense ditches necessary to control the violent floods of the
Euphrates and the Tigris. So far as evidence goes, the irrigation was
carried on by the gravity system, by which canals were built from
intakes from the river and extended throughout the cultivated district.
In Egypt for a long time the periodical overflow of the Nile brought in
the silt for fertilizer and water for moisture. When the flood
subsided, seed was planted and the crop raised and harvested. As the
population spread, the use of water for irrigation became more general,
and attempts were made to distribute its use not only over a wider
range of territory but more regularly throughout the seasons, thus
making it possible to harvest more than one crop a year, or to develop
diversified agriculture. The Egyptians used nearly all the modern
methods of procuring, storing, and distributing water. Hence, in these
centres of warm climate, fertile land, and plenty of moisture, the
earth was made to yield an immense harvest, which made it possible to
support a large population. {154} The food supply having been
established, the inhabitants could devote themselves to other things,
and slowly developed the arts and industries.
_Civilization in Mesopotamia_.--The Tigris and Euphrates, two great
rivers having their sources in mountain regions, pouring their floods
for centuries into the Persian Gulf, made a broad, fertile valley along
their lower courses. The soil was of inexhaustible fertility and easy
of cultivation. The climate was almost rainless, and agriculture was
dependent upon artificial irrigation. The upper portion of this great
river valley was formed of undulating plains stretching away to the
north, where, almost treeless, they furnished great pasture ranges for
flocks and herds, which also added to the permanency of the food supply
and helped to develop the wealth and prosperity of the country. It was
in this climate, so favorable for the development of early man, and
with this fertile soil yielding such bountiful productions, that the
ancient Chaldean civilization started, which was followed by the
Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations, each of which developed a great
empire. These empires, ruling in turn, not only represented centres of
civilization and wealth, but they acquired the overlordship of
territories far and wide, their monarchs ruling eastward toward India
and westward toward Phoenicia. In early times ancient Chaldea, located
on the lower Euphrates, was divided into two parts, the lower portion
known as Sumer, and the other, the upper, known as Akkad. While in the
full development of these civilizations the Semitic race was dominant,
there is every appearance that much of the culture of these primitive
peoples came from farther east.
_Influences Coming from the Far East_.--The early inhabitants of this
country have sometimes been called Turanian to distinguish them from
Aryans, Semites, and other races sometimes called Hamitic. They seem
to have been closely allied to the Mongolian type of people who
developed centres of culture in the Far East and early learned the use
of metals and developed a high degree of skill in handicraft. The
Akkadians, {155} or Sumer-Akkadians, appear to have come from the
mountain districts north and east, and entered this fertile valley to
begin the work of civilization at a very early period. Their rude
villages and primitive systems of life were to be superseded by
civilizations of other races that, utilizing the arts and industries of
the Akkadians, carried their culture to a much higher standard. The
Akkadians are credited with bringing into this country the methods of
making various articles from gold and iron which have been found in
their oldest tombs. They are credited with having laid the foundation
of the industrial arts which were manifested at an early time in
ancient Chaldea, Egypt, and later in Babylonia and Phoenicia. Whatever
foundation there may be for this theory, the subsequent history of the
civilizations which have developed from Thibet as a centre would seem
to attribute the early skill in handiwork in the metals and in
porcelain and glass to these people. They also early learned to make
inscriptions for permanent record in a crude way and to construct
buildings made of brick.
The Akkadians brought with them a religious system which is shown in a
collection of prayers and sacred texts found recorded in the ruins at
the great library at Nineveh. Their religion seemed to be a complex of
animism and nature-worship. To them the universe was peopled with
spirits who occupied different spheres and performed different
services. Scores of evil spirits working in groups of seven controlled
the earth and man. Besides these there were numberless demons which
assailed man in countless forms, which worked daily and hourly to do
him harm, to control his spirit, to bring confusion to his work, to
steal the child from the father's knee, to drive the son from the
father's house, or to withhold from the wife the blessings of children.
They brought evil days. They brought ill-luck and misfortune. Nothing
could prevent their destructiveness. These spirits, falling like rain
from the skies to the earth, could leap from house to house,
penetrating the doors like serpents. Their dwelling-places were
scattered in {156} the marshes by the sea, where sickly pestilence
arose, and in the deserts, where the hot winds drifted the sands.
Sickness and disease were represented by the demons of pestilence and
of fever, which bring destruction upon man. It was a religion of
fatalism, which held that man was ever attacked by unseen enemies
against whom there was no means of defense. There was little hope in
life and none after death. There was no immortality and no eternal
life. These spirits were supposed to be under the control of sorcerers
and magicians or priests, resembling somewhat the medicine men of the
wild tribes of North America, who had power to compel them, and to
inflict death or disaster upon the objects of their censure and wrath.
Thus, these primitive peoples of early Chaldea were terrorized by the
spirits of the earth and by the wickedness of those who manipulated the
spirits.
The only bright side of this picture was the creation of other spirits
conceived to be essentially good and beneficial, and to whom prayers
were directed for protection and help. Such beings were superior to
all evil spirits, provided their support could be invoked. So the
spirit of heaven and the spirit of earth both appealed to the
imagination of these primitive people, who thought that these unseen
creatures called gods possessed all knowledge and wisdom, which was
used to befriend and protect. Especially would they look to the spirit
of earth as their particular protector, who had power to break the
spell of the spirits, compel obedience, and bring terror into the
hearts of the wicked ones. Such, in brief, was the religious system
which these people created for themselves. Later, after the Semitic
invasion, a system of religion developed more colossal in its
imagination and yet not less cruel in its final decrees regarding human
life and destiny. It passed into the purely imaginative religion, and
the worship of the sun and moon and the stars gave man's imagination a
broader vision, even if it did not lift him to a higher standard of
moral conduct.
It is not known at what date these early civilizations began, {157} but
there is some evidence that the Akkadians appeared in the valley not
less than four thousand years before Christ, and that subsequently they
were conquered by the Elamites in the east, who obtained the supremacy
for a season, and then were reinforced by the Semitic peoples, who
ranged northeast, and, from northern Africa through Arabia, eastward to
the Euphrates.[1]
_Egypt Becomes a Centre of Civilization_.--The men of Egypt are
supposed to be related racially to the Caucasian people who dwelt in
the northern part of Africa, from whom they separated at a very early
period, and went into the Nile valley to settle. Their present racial
connection makes them related to the well-known Berber type, which has
a wide range in northern Africa. Some time after the departure of the
Hamitic branch of the Caucasian race into Egypt, it is supposed that
another people passed on beyond, entering Arabia, later spreading over
Assyria, Babylon, Palestine, and Phoenicia. These were called the
Semites. Doubtless, this passage was long continued and irregular, and
there are many intermixtures of the races now distinctly Berber and
Arabic, so that in some parts of Egypt, and north of Egypt, we find an
Arab-Berber mongrel type. Doubtless, when the Egyptian stock of the
Berber type came into Egypt they found other races whose life dates
back to the early Paleolithic, as the stone implements found in the
hills and caves and graves showed not only Neolithic but Paleolithic
culture. Also, the wavering line of Sudan negro types extended across
Africa from east to west and came in contact with the Caucasian stock
of northern Africa, and we find many negroid intermixtures.
The Egyptians, however, left to themselves for a number of centuries,
began rapid ascendency. First, as before stated, their food supply was
permanent and abundant. Second, there were inducements also for the
development of the art of measurement of land which later led to the
development of general principles of measurement. There was
observation of {158} the sun and moon and the stars, and a development
of the art of building of stone and brick, out of which the vast
pyramid tombs of kings were built. The artificers, too, had learned to
work in precious stones and metals and weave garments, also to write
inscriptions on tombs and also on the papyrus. It would seem as if the
civilization once started through so many centuries had become
sufficiently substantial to remain permanent or to become progressive,
but Egypt was subject to a great many drawbacks. The nation that has
the food supply of the world is sooner or later bound to come into
trouble. So it appears in the case of Egypt, with her vast food
resources and accumulation of wealth; she was eventually doomed to the
attacks of jealous and envious nations.
The history of Egypt is represented by dynasties of kings and changes
of government through a long period interrupted by the invasion of
tribes from the west and the north, which interfered with the
uniformity of development. It is divided into two great centres of
development, Lower Egypt, or the Delta, and Upper Egypt, frequently
differing widely in the character of civilization. Yet, in the latter
part of her supremacy Egypt went to war with the Semitic peoples of
Babylon and Assyria for a thousand years. It was the great granary of
the world and a centre of wealth and culture.
The kings of Egypt were despots who were regarded by the people as
gods. They were the head not only of the state but of the religious
system, and consequently through this double headship were enabled to
rule with absolute sway. The priesthood, together with a few nobles,
represented the intellectual and social aristocracy of the country.
Next to them were the warriors, who were an exclusive class. Below
these came the shepherds and farmers, and finally the slaves. While
the caste system did not prevail with as much rigidity here as in
India, all groups of people were bound by the influence of class
environment, from which they were unable to extricate themselves.
Poorer classes became so degraded that in times of famine they were
obliged to sell their liberty, their lives, or {159} their labor to
kings for food. They became merely toiling animals, forced for the
want of bread to build the monuments of kings. The records of Egyptian
civilization through art, writing, painting, sculpture, architecture,
and the great pyramids, obelisks, and sphinxes were but the records of
the glory of kings, built upon the shame of humanity. True, indeed,
there was some advance in the art of writing, in the science of
astronomy and geometry, and the manufacture of glass, pottery, linens,
and silk in the industrial arts. The revelations brought forth in
recent years from the tombs of these kings, where were stored the art
treasures representing the civilization of the time, exhibit something
of the splendors of royalty and give some idea of the luxuries of the
civilization of the higher classes. Here were stored the finest
products of the art of the times.
The wonders of Egypt were manifested in the structure of the pyramids,
which were merely tombs of kings, which millions of laborers spent
their lives in building. They represent the most stupendous structures
of ancient civilization whose records remain. Old as they appear, as
we look backward to the beginning of history, they represent a
culminating period of Egyptian art. Sixty-seven of these great
structures extended for about sixty miles above the city of Cairo,
along the edge of the Libyan Desert. They are placed along the great
Egyptian natural burying place in the western side of the Nile valley,
as a sort of boulevard of the tombs of kings and nobles. Most of them
are constructed of stone, although several are of adobe or sun-dried
brick. The latter have crumbled into great conical mountains, like
those of the pyramid temples of Babylon.
The largest pyramid, Cheops, rises to a height of 480 feet, having a
base covering 13 acres. The historian Herodotus relates that 120,000
men were employed for 20 years in the erection of this great structure.
It has never been explained how these people, not yet well developed in
practical mechanics, and not having discovered the use of steam and
with no {160} use of iron, could have reared these vast structures.
Besides the pyramids, great palaces and temples of the kings of Thebes
in Upper Egypt rivalled in grandeur the lonely pyramids of Memphis.
Age after age, century after century, witnessed the building of these
temples, palaces, and tombs. It is said that the palace of Karnak, the
most wonderful structure of ancient or modern times, was more than five
hundred years in the process of building, and it is unknown how many
hundreds of thousands of men spent their lives for this purpose.
So, too, the mighty sphinxes and colossal statues excite the wonder and
admiration of the world. Especially to be mentioned in this connection
are the colossi of Thebes, which are forty-seven feet high, each hewn
from a single block of granite. Upon the solitary plain these mute
figures sat, serene and vigilant, keeping their untiring watch through
the passage of the centuries.
_The Coming of the Semites_.--While the ancient civilization at the
mouth of the Euphrates had its origin in primitive peoples from the
mountains eastward beyond the Euphrates, and the ancient Egyptian
civilization received its impetus from a Caucasian tribe of northern
Africa, the great civilization from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus
River was developed by the Semites. Westward from the Euphrates, over
Arabia, and through Syria to the Mediterranean coast were wandering
tribes of Arabs. Perhaps the most typical ancient type of the Semitic
race is found in Arabia. In these desert lands swarms of people have
passed from time to time over the known world. Their early life was
pastoral and nomadic; hence they necessarily occupied a large territory
and were continually on the move. The country appears to have been,
from the earliest historic records, gradually growing drier--having
less regular rainfall.
So these people were forced at times to the mountain valleys and the
grasslands of the north, and as far as the agricultural lands in the
river valleys, hovering around the settled districts for food supplies
for themselves and their herds. After {161} the early settlement of
Sumer and Akkad, these Semitic tribes moved into the valley of the
Euphrates, and under Sargon I conquered ancient Babylonia at Akkad and
afterward extended the conquest south over Sumer. They found two main
cities to the west of the Euphrates, Ur and Eridu. Having invaded this
territory, they adopted the arts and industries already established,
but brought in the dominant power and language of the conquerors. Four
successive invasions of these people into this territory eventually
changed the whole life into Semitic civilization.
Later a branch moved north and settled higher up on the Tigris,
founding the city of Nineveh. The Elamites, another Semitic tribe on
the east of the Euphrates, founded the great cities of Susa and
Ecbatana. Far to the northwest were the Armenian group of Semites, and
directly east on the shores of the Mediterranean were the Phoenicians.
This whole territory eventually became Semitic in type of civilization.
Also, the Hixos, or shepherd kings, invaded Egypt and dominated that
territory for two hundred years. Later the Phoenicians became the
great sea-going people of the world and extended their colonies along
the coasts through Greece, Italy, northern Africa, and Spain. So there
was the Semitic influence from the Pillars of Hercules far east to the
River Indus, in India.
Strange to say, the mighty empires of Babylon and Nineveh and Phoenicia
and Elam failed, while a little territory including the valley of the
Jordan, called Palestine, containing a small and insignificant branch
of the Semitic race, called Hebrews, developed a literature, language,
and religion which exercised a most powerful influence in all
civilizations even to the present time.
_The Phoenicians Became the Great Navigators_.--While the Phoenicians
are given credit for establishing the first great sea power, they were
not the first navigators. Long before they developed, boats plied up
and down the Euphrates River, and in the island of Crete and elsewhere
the ancient Aegeans carried on their trade in ships with Egypt and the
eastern {162} Mediterranean. The Aegean civilization preceded the
Greeks and existed at a time when Egypt and Babylon were young. The
principal city of Cnossus exhibited also a high state of civilization,
as shown in the ruins discovered by recent explorers in the island of
Crete. It is known that they had trade with early Egypt, but whether
their city was destroyed by an earthquake or by the savage Greek
pirates of a later day is undetermined. The Phoenicians, however,
developed a strip of territory along the east shore of the
Mediterranean, and built the great cities of Tyre and Sidon. From
these parent cities they extended their trade down through the
Mediterranean and out through the Pillars of Hercules, and founded
their colonies in Africa, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Long after Tyre
and Sidon, the parent states, had declined, Carthage developed one of
the most powerful cities and governments of ancient times. No doubt,
the Phoenicians deserve great credit for advancing shipbuilding, trade,
and commerce, and in extending their explorations over a wide range of
the known earth. To them, also, we give credit for the perfection of
the alphabet and the manufacture of glass, precious stones, and dyes;
but their prominence in history appears in the long struggle between
the Carthaginians and the Romans.
_A Comparison of the Egyptian and Babylonian Civilizations_.--Taken as
a whole, there is a similarity in some respects between the Egyptian
and the Babylonian civilizations. Coming from different racial groups,
from different centres, there must necessarily be contrasts in many of
the arts of life. Egypt was an isolated country with a long river
flowing through its entire length, which brought from the mountains the
detritus which kept its valleys fertile. Communication was established
through the whole length by boats, which had a tendency to promote
social intercourse and establish national life. With the Mediterranean
on the north, the Red Sea on the east, and the Libyan Desert to the
west, it was tolerably well protected even though not shut in by high
mountain ranges. Yet it was open at all times for the hardy invaders
who sought food for {163} flocks and herds and people. There was
always "corn in Egypt" to those people suffering from drought in the
semi-arid districts of Africa and Arabia.
Nevertheless, while Egypt suffered many invasions, she maintained with
considerable constancy the ancient racial traits, and had a continuity
of development through the passing centuries which retained many of the
primitive characteristics. The valley of the Euphrates was kept
fertile by the flow of the great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates,
which, having a large watershed in the mountains, brought floods down
through the valleys bearing the silt which made the land fertile. But
in both countries at an early period the population encroached upon the
natural supply of food, and methods of irrigation were introduced to
increase the food supply. The attempts to build palaces, monuments,
and tombs were characteristic of both peoples. On account of the
dryness of the climate, these great monuments have been preserved with
a freshness through thousands of years. In the valley of the Euphrates
many of the cities that were reduced to ruin were covered with the
drifting sands and floods until they are buried beneath the surface.
In sculpture, painting, and in art, as well as in permanency of her
mighty pyramids, sphinxes, and tombs, Egypt stands far ahead of
Babylonia. The difference is mainly expressed in action, for in Egypt
there is an expression of calm, solemnity, and peace in the largest
portions of the architectural works, while in Babylonia there is less
skill and more action. The evidences of the type of civilization are
similar in one respect, namely, that during the thousand years of
development the great monuments were left to show the grandeur of
kings, monarchs, and priests, built by thousands of slaves suffering
from the neglect of their superiors through ages of toil. Undoubtedly,
this failure to recognize the rights of suffering humanity gradually
brought destruction upon these great nations. If the strength of a
great nation was spent in building up the mighty representations of the
glory and power of kings {164} to the neglect of the improvement of the
race as a whole, it could mean nothing else but final destruction.
While we contemplate with wonder the greatness of the monuments of the
pyramids and the sphinxes of Egypt and the winged bulls of Assyria, it
is a sad reflection on the cost of material and life which it took to
build them. No wonder, then, that to-day, where once people lived and
thought and toiled, where nations grew and flourished, where fields
were tilled and harvests were abundant, and where the whole earth was
filled with national life, there is nothing remaining but a barren
waste and drifting sands, all because men failed to fully estimate real
human values and worth. Marvellous as many of the products of these
ancient civilizations appear, there is comparatively little to show
when it is considered that four thousand years elapsed to bring them
about. Mighty as the accomplishments were, the slow process of
development shows a lack of vital progress. We cannot escape the idea
that the despotism existing in Oriental nations must have crushed out
the best life and vigor of a people. It is mournful to contemplate the
destruction of these mighty civilizations, yet we may thoughtfully
question what excuse could be advanced for their continuance.
It is true that Egypt had an influence on Greece, which later became so
powerful in her influences on Western civilizations; and doubtless
Babylon contributed much to the Hebrews, who in turn have left a
lasting impression upon the world. The method of dispersion of
cultures of a given centre shows that all races have been great
borrowers, and usually when one art, industry, or custom has been
thoroughly established, it may continue to influence other races after
the race that gave the product has passed away, or other nations, while
the original nation has perished.
_The Hebrews Made a Permanent Contribution to World
Civilization_.--Tradition, pretty well supported by history, shows that
Abraham came out of Ur of Chaldea about 1,900 years before Christ, and
with his family moved northward into {165} Haran for larger pasture for
his flocks on the grassy plains of Mesopotamia. Thence he proceeded
westward to Palestine, made a trip to Egypt, and returned to the upper
reaches of the Jordan. Here his tribe grew and flourished, and
finally, after the manner of pastoral peoples, moved into Egypt for
corn in time of drought. There his people lived for several hundred
years, attached to the Egyptian nation, and adopting many phases of the
Egyptian civilization. When he turned his back upon his people in
Babylon, he left polytheism behind. He obtained conception of one
supreme being, ruler and creator of the universe, who could not be
shown in the form of an image made by man.
This was not the first time in the history of the human race when
nations had approximated the idea of one supreme God above all gods and
men, but it was the first time the conception that He was the only God
and pure monotheism obtained the supremacy. No doubt, in the history
of the Hebrew development this idea came as a gradual growth rather
than as an instantaneous inspiration. In fact, all nations who have
reached any advanced degree of religious development have approached
the idea of monotheism, but it remained for the Hebrews to put it in
practice in their social life and civil polity. It became the great
central controlling thought of national life.
Compared with the great empires of Babylon and Nineveh and Egypt, the
Hebrew nation was small, crude, barbarous, insignificant, but the idea
of one god controlling all, who passed in conception from a god of
authority, imminence, and revenge, to a god of justice and
righteousness, who controlled the affairs of men, developed the Hebrew
concept of human relations. It led them to develop a legal-ethical
system which became the foundation of the Hebrew commonwealth and
established a code of laws for the government of the nation, which has
been used by all subsequent nations as the foundation of the moral
element in their civil code. Moses was not the first lawgiver of the
world of nations. Indeed, before {166} Abraham left his ancient home
in Chaldea there was ruling in Babylon King Hammurabi, who formulated a
wise code of laws, said to be the first of which we have any record in
the history of the human race. The Hebrew nation was always
subordinate to other nations, but after its tribes developed into a
kingdom and their king, Saul, was succeeded by David and Solomon, it
reached a high state of civilization in certain lines. Yet, at its
best, under the reign of David and Solomon, it was upon the whole a
barbarous nation. When the Hebrews were finally conquered and led into
captivity in Babylon, they reflected upon their ancient life, their
laws, their literature, and there was compiled a greater part of the
Bible. This instrument has been greater than the palaces of Babylon or
the pyramids of Egypt, or great conquests of military hosts in the
perpetuation of the life of a nation. Its history, its religion, its
literature in proverbs and songs, its laws, its moral code, all have
been enduring monuments that have lasted and will last as long as the
human race continues its attempt to establish justice among men.
_The Civilizations of India and China_.--Before leaving the subject of
the Oriental civilizations, at least brief mention must be made of the
development of the Hindu philosophy and religion. In the valleys of
the great rivers of India, in the shadow of the largest mountains
rising to the skies, there developed a great people of great learning
and wonderful philosophy. In their abstract conceptions they built up
the most wonderful and complex theogony and theology ever invented by
men. This system, represented by elements of law, theology, philosophy
and language, literature and learning, is found in the Vedas and the
great literary remnants of the poets. They reveal to us the intensity
of learning at the time of the highest development of the Indian
philosophy. However, its influence, wrapped up in the Brahminical
religion of fatalism, was largely non-progressive.
Later, about 500 years before Christ, when Gautama Buddha developed his
ethical philosophy of life, new hope came {167} into the world. But
this did not stay for the regeneration of India, but, rather, declined
and passed on into China and Japan. The influence of Indian
civilization on Western civilization has been very slight, owing to the
great separation between the two, and largely because their objectives
have been different. The former devoted itself to the reflection of
life, the latter resolved itself into action. Nevertheless, we shall
find in the Greek philosophy and Greek religion shadows of the learning
of the Orient. But the Hindu civilization, while developing much that
is grand and noble, like many Oriental civilizations, left the great
masses of the people unaided and unhelped. When it is considered what
might have been accomplished in India, it is well characterized as a
"land of regrets."
In the dispersion of the human race over the earth, one of the first
great centres of culture was found in Thibet, in Asia. Here is
supposed to be the origin of the Mongolian peoples, and the Chinese
represent one of the chief branches of the Mongolian race. At a very
early period they developed an advanced stage of civilization with many
commendable features. Their art, the form of pottery and porcelain,
their traditional codes of law, were influential in the Far East.
Their philosophy culminated in Confucius, who lived about 500 years
before Christ, and their religion was founded by Tao Tse, who existed
many centuries before. He was the founder of the Taoan religion of
China. But the civilization of China extended throughout the Far East,
spread into Korea, and then into Japan. It has had very little contact
with the Western civilization, and its history is still obscure, but
there are many marvellous things done in China which are now in more
recent years being faithfully studied and recorded. Their art in
porcelain and metals had its influence on other nations and has been of
a lasting nature.
_The Coming of the Aryans_.--The third great branch of the Caucasian
people, whose primitive home seems to have been in central Asia, is the
Aryan. Somewhere north of the great {168} territory of the Semites,
there came gradually down into Nineveh and Babylon and through Armenia
a people of different type from the Semites and from the Egyptians.
They lived on the great grassy plains of central Asia, wandering with
their flocks and herds, and settling down long enough to raise a crop,
and then move on. They lived a simple life, but were a vigorous,
thrifty, and family-loving people; and while the great civilization of
Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt was developing, they were pushing down from
the north. They finally developed in Persia a great national life.
Subsequently, under Darius I, a great Aryan empire was established in
the seats of the old civilization which he had conquered, whose extent
was greater than the world had hitherto known. It extended over the
old Assyrian and Babylonian empires, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, in
Caucasian and Caspian regions; covered Media and Persia, and extended
into India as far as the Indus. The old Semitic civilizations were
passing away, and the control of the Aryan race was appearing. Later
these Persians found themselves at war with the Greeks, who were of the
same racial stock. The Persian Empire was no great improvement over
the later Babylonian and Assyrian Empires. It had become more
specifically a world empire, which set out to conquer and plunder other
nations. It might have been enlightened to a certain extent, but it
had received the idea of militarism and conquest. It was the first
great empire of the Orient to come in contact with a rising Western
civilization, then centering in Greece.
This Aryan stock, when considered in Europe or Western civilization, is
known as the Nordic race. In the consideration of Western civilization
further discussion will be given of the origin and dispersion of this
race.
SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Study the economic foundation of Egypt. Babylon. Arabia.
2. Why did Oriental nations go to war? Show by example.
3. What did Egypt and Babylon contribute of lasting value to
civilization?
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4. What was the Hebrew contribution?
5. Why did these ancient empires decline and disappear?
6. Study the points of difference between the civilization of Babylon
and Egypt and Western civilization.
7. Contrast the civilization of India and China with Western
civilization.
[1] L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_. _History of Babylon_.
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